Captain Ron (1995)

(In French, On Cable TV, January 2020) As far as mid-1990s family comedy vehicles go, Captain Ron is… pretty much what you’d expect. There’s a bit of a twist here having Martin Short in the straight-man role and Kurt Russell (with a Pliskinesque eyepatch) as the tornado of chaos upending the other characters’ lives, and that generally works: Short’s everyday-man charm is an anchor, while Russell rampages from one comic set-piece to another. It’s not particularly sophisticated, but it’s well engineered, and there’s some Caribbean scenery to take in. There are a few chuckles, with the titular character not to be trusted on anything – especially given that the film plays various ambiguities to the point where nothing really matters. Otherwise, Captain Ron is your average family comedy with a more memorable than usual character—but that’s already not too bad.